Students and Alumni News

May Alumni Center Stage: Latonya Bynum

Center Stage This Month features LaTonya Bynum

I chose to attend the UAMS College of Public Health to further my knowledge and understanding of public health. The Arkansas Department of Health provided the Tuition Reimbursement program which offered a “no-cost” option in return for service time commitment which ensured I excelled in the field of public health and in my career. Read More about LaTonya’s story.

For more alumni center stage, visit our Alumni Center Stage under OSAA Career Services.

COPH Graduates 64 Public Health Professionals

Certificates and diplomas were awarded to 64 COPH graduates May 19 at Verizon arena. Graduates were from the following programs: Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Analytics, Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Public Health, Master of Health Administration, Master of Public Health, Doctor of Public Health, and Doctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and Health Systems and Services Research. At commencement, the college was recognized by Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, for graduating a record number of students this year. Additionally he gave recognition to Jim Raczynski, Ph.D., professor, inaugural M. Joycelyn Elders, M.D., chair in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and founding dean of the COPH, for his leadership and successful work in getting the college to its current state prior to stepping down as dean in December, 2018.

Convocation was held that morning a the Wyndham North Little Rock, where students and faculty were recognized for their success.

Congratulations to the 2019 COPH graduates and award recipients!

The following student and faculty awards were given out at convocation:

Student Awards

Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health Inductees: Mary Kathryn Allison, Meghan Catherine Ayers, Clare Cecilia Brown, Lindsey Kristan Clark, Nakita Nicole Lovelady, Ashley Boccarossa McNatt, Earl Julian Morris IV, Grace Caroline Parham, Callie Elise Parks, Camille Marie Richoux, Christine Louise Rutlen, Jared Colby Stone, Susan Thapa

Dr. Jan S. Richter Health Behavior and Health Education Scholarship: Rebecca Stallman

The Edward F. and Carol C. Stewart Scholarship for Academic Excellence in Public Health: Samjhana Shakya

The Neil and Clara Spain Memorial Scholarship: Daniela Ramirez

The Fay W. Boozman Public Health and Community Service Scholarship: Lydia Famuyide

Bourne Scholarship — David Bourne scholarship winner, Kylie Hayes

The David Bourne, M.D., M.P.H. Public Health Physician Memorial Scholarship: Kylie Hayes and Margaret Power

Outstanding M.H.A. Student Awards: Callie Parks and Jared Colby Stone

Jeanne D. Weiss Award: Tamara Havner

Sonya T. Askew Outstanding Public Health Student Award: Nakita Nicole Lovelady

Honor Graduates: Mary Kathryn Allison, Meghan Catherine Ayers, Lorenzo Joseph Baldwin, Phillip V. Borden, Jessica Lynne Boswell, Clare Cecilia Brown, Lindsey Kristan Clark, Andrew Hershel Cope, Arthur Curtis Davies, Tyler Harrison Easley, Mariah Fletcher, Laura Hayes Gocio, Chun Guo, John Hewett Hunton, Jonathan A. Laryea, Xin S. Li, Nakita Nicole Lovelady, Rachel An Lovell, Laura Denise Wagner MacLeod, Xiaocong Li Marston, H. Cass Martin, Ashley Boccarossa McNatt, Katherine Elizabeth Montgomery, Earl Julian Morris IV, Monisha Murugadass, Elizabeth Jane Necessary, Sarah N. O’Connor, Grace Caroline Parham, Callie Elise Parks, Mason Cole Qualls, Camille Marie Richoux, Christine Louise Rutlen, Dimple Himansu Shah, Kelsey Brooke Shaw, Jennifer Stane, Jared Colby Stone, Susan Thapa, Noel D. Thompson, and Xiaoyan Zhu

Faculty Awards

Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching: Tiffany Haynes, Ph.D.

Faculty Award for Excellence in Research: Holly Felix, Ph.D., MPA
Faculty Award for Excellence in Public Service: Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D., R.N.
Faculty Delta Omega Inductee: Paula Roberson, Ph.D.
Student Council Award for Outstanding Public Health Faculty Member: Ruth Eudy, Ph.D.

The following are the 2019 COPH graduates:

Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Data Analytics: Jessica Lynne Boswell, She’Mikia Denise Ford, Chun Guo, Jonathan A. Laryea, Laura Denise Wagner MacLeod, Patrice Moody, and Xiaoyan Zhu

Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Public Health: Ebony C. Duren and Ava Renece Rumph

Master of Health Administration: Lorenzo Joseph Baldwin, Andrew Hershel Cope, Cara Elizabeth Cox, Arthur Curtis Davies, Tyler Harrison Easley, Mariah Fletcher, Tamara Renea Havner, John Hewett Hunton, Roy Lee Hurst, H. Cass Martin, Sarah Elise Merlos, Katherine Elizabeth Montgomery, Elizabeth Jane Necessary, Lauren L. Nielsen, Grace Caroline Parham, Callie Elise Parks, Kelsey Brooke Shaw, Jessica L. Stahulak, Jared Colby Stone

Master of Public Health: Fahimeh Allahdadi, Erica Louise Avila, MEghan Catherine Ayers, Jessica Lynne Besancon, Phillip V. Borden, Lindsey Kristan Clark, Ebony Tanae Cotton, Alisha Ann-Marie Crump, Courtney Lynn Del Donno, Laura Hayes Gocio, Daniel Stephen Hedges, Tori Lynell Johnson, Sydney Shea Lewis, Xin S. Li, Jason A. Lochmann, Rachel An Lovell, Earl Julian Morris IV, Monisha Murugadass, Sarah N. O’Connor, Mason Cole Qualls, Camille Marie Richoux, Christine Louise Rutlen, Dimple Himansu Shah, Jennifer Stane, Jessica Lynnea Stone, Noel D. Thompson, Jessica Hailey Turner, and Shaima Faheem Zayed

Doctor of Public Health: Micheal Knox and Ashley Boccarossa McNatt

Doctor of Philosophy:

Epidemiology: Susan Thapa

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research: Mary Kathryn Allison and Nakita Nicole Lovelady

Health Systems and Services Research: Mir Murtuza Ali, Clare Cecilia Brown, and Xiacong Li Marston

National Public Health Week April 2nd-8th

Brian Delavan, MPH

Brian Delavan, MPH, has had a busy year so far. He won first place in the Young Scientist competition at the 2017 MCBios conference in Little Rock, AR. He presented at the 2017 Drug Development and Discovery Colloquium. Additionally, he also has an article published in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences’ October 2017 issue entitled “Lessons Learned from Two Decades of Anti-Cancer Drugs.” Here’s some more information on Brian and what he’s been doing since graduating from the COPH.

What degree program(s) and track/concentration (if applicable) did you complete? Please include other relevant educational background.

I completed the MPH program, with a biostatistics track. I am working on my Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, focusing on repositioning drugs to treat rare diseases

What year you did you graduate?

2015

What attracted you to the field of public health?

The opportunity to do “public good” is what attracted me to public health. I define public good as doing something that improves people’s lives.

What do you do now (job title and place of employment)?

I am performing my dissertation research at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson, Arkansas, in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

How would you describe a typical day in your current position (concrete examples of tasks or duties)?

A typical day includes researching journals for genes and proteins associated with rare diseases, researching different databases concerning drugs and genes activated by these drugs, writing and proofreading journal articles, using software to generate network analysis and visualizations of data.

What experiences or learning gained at UAMS or elsewhere have you found most beneficial professionally or helped you qualify for what you do?

The statistical analysis I learned at UAMS, especially learning the R program, was extremely helpful. Learning how to do literature searches and writing papers in both my undergraduate and UAMS programs was also very helpful.

What is your advice for students considering a similar career path?

Make sure you learn R and the Bioconductor package. Don’t be afraid to search for classes or on

line help to fill in knowledge gaps. Learn about biology and machine learning.

What experiences or learning gained at UAMS have you found most beneficial professionally? What other kinds of experiences or learning also helped you qualify for what you do?

Learning to write in a style more suited for journals was very helpful. Having to present findings is also extremely important.

What do you find most rewarding about your work in public health?

Helping folks who do not even know we are helping them.

Top 5 Nuggets of Wisdom for Success

If I knew then what I know now: A look back into my undergrad days

By: LaTonya Bynum, MPH, CHES

You can do whatever you put your mind to.

I was the first in my immediate family to graduate from an accredited college. I attended the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) and graduated in 2004 with my Bachelor of Science in Health Education with an emphasis in Community Health and Spanish. I then earned a Master of Public Health with an emphasis in Health Policy and Management at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. In undergrad, I changed my major several times before finding out about the field of HEALTH EDUCATION – teaching people about behaviors that promote wellness. Save lots of money by documenting what you love to do the most then go into a field that aligns with what you love to do. This is your calling or PURPOSE. Your job should be fun and not work. The health care industry is projected to add over 4 million more jobs between 2012 and 2022, making it the fastest growing industry. There’s a lot of opportunity in this field!!!

Find your niche and carve out a space for yourself – Find a Mentor to GUIDE you to SUCCESS.

Use what makes you different to be a stand out in the crowd. I always loved math, language and science in high school. I used my skills to put me into places where most of my peers could only imagine going, seeing, and doing. Upon graduating from UCA, I took my first job as a secretary with the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH). The supervisor that hired me loved the fact that I could interpret language. This later helped me to excel in learning SAS programming language which is a software program that ADH uses to analyze health data to report statistics. These skills helped me to move from secretary ($6/hr) to senior rural health analyst ($25/hr). The youngest and highest paid analyst in the department. It is not only about who you know BUT more so about who knows you and your work!

Stay focused and write down your plan A, B & C GOALS for SUCCESS.

You are most like the 5 people you hang around the most. Their behavior, attitude, and spirit will rub off on you. If you want to be an EAGLE you must hang with EAGLES. If you want to live in a chicken coop then hang with chicken’s every day. If there are no EAGLES in your circle – be that ONE EAGLE and SOAR HIGH. Stay focused and write down plans for your success.

Use every project or class assignment to develop a new experience & skill then NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK.

Employers are looking for employees who have experience and skill. Be sure to use your class assignments to network with local businesses and organizations in the community who are potential employers. Always introduce yourself and tell people what you are learning in school, then explain how what you know can help them with their business – GOOGLE ELEVATOR SPEECH. YOU ARE AN ASSET TO THE COMMUNITY. Always look for ways to develop or improve your skillset. This will pay off in big DIVIDENDS soon. THINK BIG and DREAM BIGGER.

Think JOB CREATOR not JOB SEEKER.

Use what you know to do what needs to be done to solve local and statewide problems- use your job and school as a foundation to build your network. Knowledge is power only if you learn to apply it. For the longest time, I always thought I needed to graduate so that I could get a good job. Now at the age of 35, I am thinking differently about the importance of building grassroots initiatives that provide solutions for what I see as constant problems in the communities I am a part of. Take what you have learned and use it to your benefit. Currently, I own acres of land and one day soon I plan to become a healthy housing properties manager. It is important to generate multiple income streams for early retirement purposes and overall life enjoyment.

COPH Graduates Make Public Health Impact Through Health Literacy

Four UAMS COPH alumna have found their niche with the UAMS Center for Health Literacy. They are part of a highly collaborative team that is dedicated to improving population health by making health information easy to understand. The UAMS CHL mission includes training health professionals and students and conducting health literacy research. The Center also provides plain language services nationwide that include assessing, editing, and creating health materials for the average reader.

The UAMS CHL team was rewarded for its hard work a few months ago, when a patient tool created in partnership with the UAMS Center for Distance Health, received national recognition. The patient handbook, “Cómo Hablar con su Doctor/How to Talk

COPH alumni women — COPH alumni make up most of the UAMS Center for Health Literacy Staff (second from left-Allison Caballero, MPH, Katie Leath, MPH, Kristie Hadden, Ph.D.; and far right-Nancy Docktor, MPH)

to Your Doctor,” won two coveted ClearMark awards, including the grand prize in the Spanish category. The purpose of the handbook is to help Spanish-speaking patients better communicate with their healthcare providers.

It was during her training at COPH that Kristie Hadden, PhD, the Center’s executive director, chose health literacy as career path. After graduation, she founded the UAMS Health Literacy program, which today is the Center for Health Literacy.

“My early years in communication sciences and disorders, paired with my research training in health behaviors and health education at UAMS, were essential to building the health literacy agenda and vision we have at the UAMS CHL,” says Kristie.

In the past year, joining the Center were Nancy Dockter, MPH, as plain language coordinator; Katie Leath, MPH, as program administrator for health literacy services and communications; and Alison Caballero, MPH, CHES, CRS, as director of programs.

Although each has her own discrete role, when it comes to plain language services, all three, and sometimes Dr. Hadden, are involved. Nancy is typically the first to tackle assessment and editing of a document. The work submitted is diverse; a state agency’s letter to benefits recipients, a UAMS researcher’s informed consent form, or content for a local hospital website are typical.

“I have always enjoyed the editing process, and knowing that our work has a direct impact on folks in the community is very satisfying,” says Nancy.

Katie and Alison, as reviewers, add perspective and polish to documents as they are finalized and returned to customers, accompanied by a summary that explains edits and provides grade level readability scores.

The Center also looks to Katie to put the word out about health literacy and the work of UAMS CHL via social media and other communication channels. She also heads up field testing of plain language materials the Center produces.

“This a favorite part of my job,” Katie said. “We always learn so much from our focus group participants. Their perspective is vitally important to health literacy work.”

Alison too wears many hats, including new business and philanthropic development, strategic direction, grants, and program oversight. “I’ve felt right at home since joining CHL in January,” Alison said. “It is a privilege to work alongside this stellar team every day as we all employ our public health training to improve health across the nation.”

Student Research

Jing Jin, MPH, doctoral student in epidemiology, presented her research at the annual meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research in Seattle, Washington, June 21-24. Her research was under the supervision of Mohammed Orloff, Ph.D., associate professor.

Mofan Gu, MPH, doctoral student in epidemiology, presented findings from his research at the annual meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research in Seattle, Washington, June 21-24.

Awards

Post doctoral fellow in the department of epidemiology, Patrick Apopa, recently won an award for his scientific poster at the 14th annual MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Conference, March 23-25. Apopa’s poster was titled, “Cyanobacteria Colonization in the Lung Exhibit Innate Inflammatory Response Leading to Lung Adenocarcinoma.” He won $150 for his work. Other UAMS authors on the abstract include Rosalind Penney, Ph.D., Konstantinos Arnaoutakis, M.D., Matthew A. Steliga, M.D., Susanne Jeffus, M.D., Nishi Shah, M.D., Orloff Mohammed, Ph.D, Emine Bircan, Ph.D. student, and Jing Jin, Ph.D. student.

MPH Student Presents Grand Rounds at Arkansas Department of Health

Jonathan Aram, MPH student and epidemiologist at the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH), presented at ADH grand rounds July 6 on the Arkansas Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP).

The PMP is a database that collects and stores prescribing and dispensing data for controlled substances and other drugs specified by Arkansas law. Aram, along with Denise Robertson, PMP Administrator, discussed how far the program has come since it was established by Act 304 in 2011.

Pharmacies input prescriptions for controlled substances into the system. Doing this allows the prescriber to see how many times an individual has filled a prescription. Since implementation in 2013, the PMP has been voluntary, but that will change in the fall when prescribers will be required to check the PMP before prescribing certain drugs.

PMP authorized users include pharmacists, physicians, advanced practice nurses, optometrists, dentists, law enforcement, and licensing board members.

Despite a recent reduction in the number of prescriptions written, per captita, opioid use in Arkansas remains high.

Along with an increase in prescribing, Arkansas has seen rising drug overdose death rates beginning in the late 1990’s. Drug overdose deaths occur more frequently among non-Hispanic whites, adults with low educational attainment and people living in certain counties in Arkansas.

For more information, visit https://www.arkansaspmp.com/.

COPH Graduates Present Grand Rounds at Arkansas Department of Health

COPH graduates and Delta Omega inductees, Melissa Clemens and Shelbie Stahr, presented grand rounds on June 22 at the Arkansas Department of Health. They each presented research from their culminating experience projects in the MPH program.

Clemens looked at the effects of nicotine and tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) from e-cigarettes on pregnant women. The study, which was the first of its kind, specifically looked at the effects of the biomarkers, nicotine, cotinine, and the TSNAs NNK and NNL, which are carcinogens and what most people assume are not in ENDS, by sampling the hair of 81 pregnant women who use Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS).

Results showed that dual users (or those who smoke cigarettes and are ENDS users) and smokers expose themxelves to the same amount of nicotine. Nicotine i also only paritally responsible for adverse birth outcomes; therefore, cigarettes must contain additional toxins. Lastly, dual users expose themselves to more NNK than smokers, which may affect them down the road.

Stahr’s research looked at the biomarker SULT1A1 and its capabilities for cancer. She aimes to identify a biomarker that could ultimately reduce invasive procedures and large costs that a cancer diagnosis brings.

SULT1A1 is a drug-metabolizing enzyme, expressed in the liver, that engages in modifying metabolites and neutralizing toxins. Stahr looked at 288 liver samples to see if there was a correlation between SULT1A1 expression and activity levels and the methylation status. Ultimately, she couldn’t make a correlation, but if work like this continues, eventually a biomarker will be found that can reduce the cancer burden in our health care system.

Clemens and Stahr will both continue their education at UAMS in the fall by pursuing Ph.D.’s, one in Toxicology and the other in Epidemiology, respectively. Congrats to both ladies on all their hard work.